


where can one meet space pirates

by wishicouldwrite



Category: The Mechanisms (Band), The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, Gen, Jonny and Nastya are siblings, Just to be safe, Other, and there isn't really any violence but, i loove poly mechs but my aro ace ass can't figure shit out, i tried to proofread but, in prison, is that all? how do i tag???, its mechs, mechs and junoverse meet, mentions of muerder and a hand incident, nastya has a bad time but she gets help, peple get interrupted a lot, rated T for some swearing, some shootings, who knows how well that went
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26459269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishicouldwrite/pseuds/wishicouldwrite
Summary: Vespa knew a lot of ways to escape from any situation, and that particular one was not an exception, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t furious.***a heist went wrong brings our fav crime family to a prison where they meet some immortal space pirates
Relationships: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina, kind of poly mechs
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	where can one meet space pirates

**Author's Note:**

> sooo they're both in space so it's realistic right?  
> i stole a lot of headcanons from other mechs fics and i don't remember which ones but they are all really good  
> some characters might be a bit ooc?? or a lot ooc? i don't really control that, sorry  
> the mere fact that juno and peter arn't all ver each other is my crime against humanity  
> but i really can't figure romance out  
> also warning!! i'm not a native speaker might be some mistakes  
> enjoy!!

The Carte Blanche crew had to make an unplanned stop to find Rita some tech she didn’t have, but needed for their next heist. The only planet that had that tech in the sector they were in was some small forgotten one, that used to be a military base, then an illegal market, then some other planet’s government took over, so the market moved underground.

Unfortunately the tech they needed couldn’t be bought at the market, there was only one of them and it belonged to the government facility.

The plan was for Juno and Peter to get the thing and then get away on Ruby 7, while Vespa and Jet would ensure no one followed them to the Carte Blanche and then get on the ship themselves.

But, as plans tend to do, the plan went to shit right away and, as a result of quick thinking of 4 experienced criminals, they decided that the best outcome would be to let Jet take the tech to Rita, as Peter and Juno couldn’t escape their pursuers. It was also wisely chosen that with Vespa they had a higher chance of surviving. So all three of them stayed behind. 

The Carte Blanche couldn’t land on the planet, so the Ruby7 was their only way to the ship. But it seemed like they’d have to figure something out.

Vespa knew a lot of ways to escape from any situation, and that particular one was not an exception, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t furious.

The place they were taken to looked like it had seen better days. It was horribly understaffed, and the staff they had was either underqualified or didn’t care at all. They were barely checked for any weapons (Vespa still had 3 knives on her), and after they had confiscated what they had found, the trio were simply led into a long, dark room where there already were a bunch of people. 

The guard that had taken them there had very clanking steps and a high pitched, lively voice. When they opened the cell, the Carte Blanche crew saw a long-ish room. To their left there were empty chains coming from the wall, on their right, there were already some people chained to the wall. One of them, farthest from the door, was walking towards his spot.

The guard called out to him, “Hey, Old Chap, I Told You To Stop Getting Out Of Your Handcuffs!”

The guy screamed back, visibly annoyed “Yeah, yeah… I was about to get back in, if you would just fuck off!”

“Okay, Just Wait A Minute. I’ll Get Those Fellas To Their Places And Will Lock You In Again.”

“Ughh….Okay!” the guy screamed back.

Vespa looked at the weird scene and decided that if they all treated it like no big deal those chains must be as sloppy as the rest of that prison. Also, who used chains anymore? And why were there 6 people in one cell already?

While the guard was locking up huge handcuffs, on a very uncomfortable length, with their hands awkwardly hanging off the wall, the guy just stood there and patiently waited for the guard to get back to him. When the trio and the weird guy were all secure, the guard left and they were left alone with their new cellmates. 

At each wall there were 6 places, and all the strangers were relatively close to each other, while Peter, Juno and Vespa were put with one spot in between.

Once the guard left a silence settled in. It didn't last for long as Vespa needed to express some of her annoyance very urgently. 

“Steel...” she almost hissed, “If you just went on with the plan we wouldn’t be chained to the wall in prison in the middle of nowhere.”

“It wasn’t my fault that the place wasn’t empty, how we thought it would be.”

“No, but it Is your fault that you couldn’t just get the damn chip you were supposed to and get out of there.”

“Oh, well, Vespa, we all know our dear detective isn’t the best with technology, so maybe you shouldn’t-”

“Shut. Up. Thieve” she basically spat out, “It was your fault as much as his- And now we’re stuck here. Chained to a wall. Your pockets won’t help you here” she looked at Peter and then at Juno “Just as your cheap little plasma cutter.”

“Well, they confiscated the plasma cutter anyway, so-” Juno started but was interrupted by a new voice.

“I’m so very sorry to get into your, no doubt, utmostly important conversation, but could you kick that hand near your feet my way?” a person with a metal arm called from the other wall, looking at Juno.

Juno looked at the ground and saw a human hand clenched into fist lying within his kicking reach. He made a very troubled and disgusted sound and stepped closer to the wall.

“I’m terribly sorry again m’lady, didn’t think it would bother you so much. My environment is rubbing off on me. Forget I asked for it.” He bowed his head a bit.

“Could you tell why you would need that h-” Peter started slowly, a bit distracted by the hand.

The guy who was walking around earlier said agitatedly, “Von Raum, if you want it so much i’ll get it. Hate just standing here anyway.”

“No, Jonny, I think it would really bother our new companions if you chewed your hand off to get out of there.” A person next to the guy- Jonny- said.

“So what!” he said at the same time with:

“You’d do what?!” 

Juno was very disturbed by their conversation, and now, looking at the hand, he could see how uneven and torn the edge of the wound was. It didn’t make him feel better at all. 

“Don’t mind him, he just doesn’t like to stay still for long. By the way Hi! Welcome to our cell, I guess. I’m Raphaella la Cognizi and this is our crew.” a woman with mechanical wings said.

Vespa didn’t say anything, as she didn’t like any of them one bit, Juno looked a little nervously at all of them and suggested a dubious “hi?”, while Peter took an opportunity to talk with a weird bunch. 

“Hello, I’m Peter. A pleasure to meet you all. When you say ‘crew’ what exactly do you mean?”

“Oh, we are The Mechanisms, a crew of immortal space pirates.” Jonny said, like it was the most usual introduction. “Jonny D’Ville, capta-”

“First mate.” interrupted shouts from everyone. 

Jonny looked ever more annoyed.

“Oh, that sounds really interesting” Peter said just as casually, Vespa rolled her eyes at that. “How did you all end up here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’d tell you but,” Jonny turned to his crewmates “I’m Really Tired Of Fucking Standing Here” he shouted at them accusingly, it reminded juno of an exaspetated child.

A couple of them sighed. “Raph, with your wingspan, you can unlock Ashes, then they can get the lockpick from Jonny’s hand on the floor and let him out.” 

“I can still get out by myself.” Jonny suggested.

“Please don't,” Juno said, pointedly looking anywhere but the hand.

“Just what one wouldn’t do for you, Jonny.” said person next to Jonny- presumably Ashes, “Go for it, Raph.”

End like that winged girl- Raphaella- spread out her left wing, which shifted a little and a metallic feather separated from it, she placed it into Ashes’ handcuffs and turned a bit, so they snapped open. 

Ashes turned their head to her, “Thanks” and then walked up to pick up Jonny’s hand from the ground. They unclenched the fist, got the lockpick out, threw the hand back on the floor, walked up to Jonny and let him free.

He started moving as soon as he got his hands free. “Ah finally!!” Having his spirits up, he reached for Ashes’ hand and they meet him halfway, to spin him once holding his hand above his head.

“You’re welcome Jonny” they smiled at him with a tiny smile, he grinned back.

Vespa really didn’t like their cellmates and didn’t want to interact with them in any way if possible. But she really didn’t like a situation where she was still chained to a wall and a bunch of weird criminals in the same room were free in their movements. Needless to say everyone from Carte Blanche noticed that their neighbours treated the situation more like a tiny inconvenience and could seemingly free themselves on a whim.

So Peter, who had the most contact with them, took a small silence as cue to start the conversation again.

“So, now that you’re free, you can tell us how you ended up in jail?” he said casually, as if he wasn’t bothered by being chained to a wall.

“Oh yeah! Wait a second.”he outstretched his hand towards Ashes and they gave him the lock pic. He bowed a bit theatrically in return and went to unlock the man with a metal arm. As he got free, together they walked to stand closer to center of the room and started off dramatically:

“Now, we shall tell you...”

Suddenly there is violin music playing and Jonny and some others start singing but it’s quickly drowning in horrible noise from the outside. Out of which Vespa could hear something like “God No”, “Not Again”, “STOP IT”, and “GUAAAARD”.

As the screaming got really loud the mechanisms started screaming back something in a line of “OKAY calm the Fuck down now”.

And like that in a matter of seconds it was all quiet again. 

“We should get out of here anyway,” Jonny grumbled, kicking some trash on the ground, Juno really hoped it wasn’t the hand.

“Yeah, I’m getting tired of this place anyway” says some guy with weird eyes.

“I miss my laboratory on the ship.” Raphaella says a bit sadly.

“And my library.”

“And arson.” 

“Yeah...” all of them sigh softly.

“Okay we’ve been here for too long already” von Raum says, as he takes the lockpick from Jonny and starts unlocking everyone else.

“Oh wait guys.” the weird eyes guy says, “Now that we are leaving, it just hit me.” he turned to others, “Where’s Brian?”

There was a moment of almost everyone saying “Ahhhhhhh” in a tone that said that’s what we forgot. 

Then a woman said “Considering his looks, I’d say there is a 60% chance he is in their storage. They most likely believed him to be a robot and led him there.”

Ashes looked thoughtful for a second, “Yeah, he would probably just go with them, he was on MJE when we got here”

“We have to get him, or it’ll again be like ‘Jonny you left me on the gallows and we fell into the sun’ without end” Jonny mimicked mockingly. That earned a confused look from Juno and Peter, Vespa was not gonna show anyone she was in any way interested.

“Tim, get TS when it goes by.” Ashes said, and then turned to Peter, “You need a hand with that?” they nodded in the general direction of the wall.

“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind.” Peter said conversationally.

Ashes picked the lock on his chains and walked over to the other wall, where mechanisms were getting comfortable, Raphaella and the other woman were talking, and the eye guy- Tim- was waiting at the door.

Peter didn’t lose any time with his hands free, and went to get Juno and Vespa out with his own lockpicks. 

When free, Vespa grabbed Juno and Peter to herself and dragged them closer to the corner, making sure they were fine on the way. After a short conversation, they made a little vague plan of getting out of there and not getting killed on their way. As silence settled in again, Juno turned to the other group.

“So what’s your plan?” Juno asked, as mechanisms were getting comfortable on the ground in one big pile.

The guy at the door said without turning around “We’ll get to their stock, pick up our stuff and Brian and go to our ship.”

“How do you plan to get out of the cell?” Vespa asked, a bit skeptical. It was a huge metal door with a small window. Can’t open it from the inside, can’t really break it down before someone comes to check on the noise.

“Just wait, in about 20 minuts there will be an evening check, and we’ll get the door opened.”

“Hope you don’t mind if we leave as well.” Peter said semi-jokingly. 

“Suit yourself.” Ashes shrugged.

Von Raum turned to them “Marius von Raum.” he introduced himself, “So, we never learned why you got here.” mechanisms didn’t treat the whole deal too seriously, but he especially seemed to be having fun.

Juno, Vespa and Peter looked at each other.

“A heist went south.” Juno said.

“Ah yes, unfortunately some things did not go as planned and we missed our getaway transport” Peter elaborated a bit, “What about you?”

“Ah, we partly-accidentally crashed our ship into a couple of buildings-” Raphaella started, but got interrupted by Marius.

“-Including that prison, we crashed like half of it, that’s why everything looks so bad and there is 10 people in one small cell-”

and he got interrupted back by Raphaella: “-yeah, and then we got out of the ship and went for our usual business-” 

and Jonny cut in there:“-maybe killed someone or set a couple of buildings on fire-” 

Tim interrupted with:“-definitely some shootings-”

and Jonny again:“-yes definitely some shootings-” And then Ashes put their hand on Jonny’s mouth to shut him up and nodded at the door.

Everyone shut up and listened to approaching footsteps. As ashes tore their hand away before Jonny tried to bite it off. When the footsteps reached their door Tim spoke up, “Hey TS!”

“Hey, Old Chap” answered a high voice from earlier.

“We decided it’s time to get out. Open the door, please.”

“You Got It Tim” the guard happily replied and unlocked their cell. “Are Your New Friends Going Out Too?” The guard looked at the Carte Blanche crew.

“Yes, TS. Let me introduce you” Marius said, getting up, “That’s Peter” he gestured at Peter. “and it’s apparently his partners in crimes” he gestured at the other two.

“Um, it’s Juno” Juno said, and then pointed at Vespa “That’s Vespa.”

“Jolly To Meet You Chaps!” the guard said, “I’m The Toy Soldier!”

“We call it TS.” Raphaella said, “But we should be going, wanna go to the storage with us? You’d probably want to get your things back. And we can give you a ride, if you want.” She added and they all started walking out.

Vespa looked at Peter and Juno “I don’t trust them.”

“Let’s get to the storage to get our things back and then we’ll decide on the ride.” Juno said, hurring after the pirates.

They easily caught up with the crew. Vespa was walking at the end of the group to keep her eye on everything.  
Juno made a noise to get the attention of a woman that was walking closest to him. She turned to him and said helpfully:

“Ivy Alexandria”

“Oh, yes” he said, thrown off his rhythm, but quickly getting back to his question, “So why is your friend a guard here? Or did you befriend it here?”

“When we got ‘arrested’” she didn’t do air quotes but he could definitely hear them “Toy Soldier pretended to be a guard, it's very good at pretending and it really loves institutions that rely on systematic violence and following of orders.” 

“So you just stayed here and it worked as a guard?”

“It seemed to be having fun.”

“For how long have you been here?” Peter asked, walking at the other side of Ivy.

“For 6 month, 4 days and 15 hours as of now” Ivy said without missing a bit.

“Very precise.” Peter noted.

They reached what probably was their storing space, but looked like a huge warehouse with a lot of shelves and boxes. The Toy Soldier stepped to the front of the group and turned to them:

“Weapons Are In Sector B To Your Left, Cold Weapons Are in the drawers in the corner, firearms are in boxes on shelves at the end, explosives and nuclear weapons are transferred from here, sorry Tim. Everything is stored by date.” it said chipperly.

There could be heard an annoyed ughh, and Juno turned to Toy Soldier, as the mechanisms started walking around to find their things,

“You didn’t mention lasers?” 

“There Is A Lot Of Those. All The Shelves From The Red Line To The Firearms Section Is Yours.”

“Thanks.” Juno said as he passed by it.

“You Are Welcome Old Chap!”

The Carte Blanche crew was staying together, and first went to get Juno’s laser. Peter helpfully supplied today's date and after they got it they moved to the firearm shelf and cold weapons drawers, where most of the mechanisms were talking while getting their guns back on.

Vespa and Peter went to find their knives and put them back on, while Juno stood there awkwardly watching Jonny put on at least 4 separate belts with guns, and Tim showing even more into every one of his pockets.

Ashes walked up to Juno:

“So, do you want a ride?” they asked, lighting a cigarette with a blowtorch.

“Uh, we haven’t deci-”

“Hey, Ashes where’d you got that blowtorch?” Jonny asked walking up to them.

“It was lying somewhere here. I … borrowed it.” they said.

“Right,” Jonny said excitedly, “so let’s go get Brian and get out of here.”

“He’s probably with confiscated robots. TS, lead the way.” Ivy said walking up to Toy Soldier.

“You Got It Chap!” 

And mechanisms started walking away, Peter and Vespa walked up to Juno.

“So are we taking their offer for a ride?” Juno asked them both.

“I don’t trust them.” Vespa said again.

“I think we should consider that.” Juno said, “Not that Vespa doesn’t like them but the ride-”

“Yes, Juno, we got that.” Peter interrupted him. “I agree, they have a transport we could use, and in case there will be anyone waiting for us, our chances are higher while having them around.”

“Or they could kill us,” Vespa said, in her fashion, angrily, “they are a bunch of psychos.”

“Also, didn’t they say they were immortal?” Juno asked.

“They are psychos,” Vespa said again, like it was only proving her point.

“They may be a bit weird, I agree,” Peter started, “but, they are our easiest and quickest way to get to the Carte Blanche.” He looked at Juno and then Vespa, “And I have a good feeling about that.”

“Pff” Vespa huffed, “I’m not gonna trust your feelings with my life.”

“Gut feelings, to your information, are very important in any job-” Peter got annoyed back.

“Okay, okay” Juno started, “I’m in for going with them-”

“Oh yeah! Big news Steel! You’re agreeing with that thief-”

“Vespa, I had a long day, I trust Peter's hunch and I just wanna get back to the ship.” he looked exhausted, “don’t you?”

Vespa thought about how much she missed Buddy, and how she just wanted to hug her and stop being so alert all the time, and finally feel calm again. 

“Okay, but if they kill us, you’ll regret it Steel.” Vespa held his gaze for long enough to make him a bit uneasy.

“I’m really glad we resolved that, but where are our new companions?” Peter asked, interrupting a little staring contest that was about to start between Juno and Vespa.

All three of them looked around, and realized they were alone, in the warehouse of a jail that they broke out of. Then they heard a gunshot followed by a loud maniacal laughter and a couple more gunshots.

“Something’s telling me we should follow the psycho sounds.” Juno said dryly.

There they discovered pirates with a new person, who seemed to be made completely out of metal. He looked at them:

“Hello, I’m Brian.” he offered politely.

“Hi, Juno. Why was there shooting?”

“Oh, Jonny tried to shoot a spider, but it ricocheted into Tim, and Tim shot back. But they were making too much noise, so Ashes shot them both.” Brian explained helpfully.

“You’re back!!” Marius walked up to them, dragging Brian with him with a hand over his shoulders.

“Yes,” Peter started, “And we would like to accept your offer about a ride, if that still stands.”

“Sure thing!” Marius said. “Okay, now that we’ve collected Brian-”

“Whom we haven’t forgotten here.” Jonny cut in.

“Yes, whom we absolutely haven’t forgotten here,” Marius went on, “we should be on our way.”

“Aurora is with 86.54 probability parked in the old part of the city, it’s 4.2 miles to the south-west from here.”

Once they were out of prison with surprisingly little attempts coming from anyone to stop them, they got to the problem of transportation.

“Are we gonna get a car or…?” Juno asked no one in particular.

“We could walk, it’s not that far away.” Ashes shrugged, lightening another cigarette. 

“Let’s take a bus!” Jonny suggested way too eagerly.

“Seems Like Jolly Good Fun!” Toy Soldier agreed in their usual manner.

“The one that can take us to the north entrance of The Old Town will be here in around 2 minutes.” Ivy informed them.

“Then it’s decided!” Jonny concluded.

“You’re serious?” Juno asked a bit disbelievingly, “You’re taking a bus after escaping from prison?”

Most of them shrugged.

“Jonny has a weird fascination with public transportation.” Tim offered.

“It’s better than walking.” Raphaella said.

“And to fit us all, we’d need a bus anyway.” Marius went on.

“And we’re not stealing a bus.” Brian said, a little bit reproachfully.

“I would!” Jonny said insistently, “there doesn’t seem to be any around.”

“So we’re taking a bus,” Juno concluded, still a bit bemused, “Right. What else we would’ve done”

Their bus arrived exactly when Ivy said it would, and they all got in, somehow Ashes had local money on them, and even paid for the bus. They got off at The Old Town bus stop and walked in, as they went, mechanisms were mostly talking among themselves. Raphaella had her wing wrapped around Ivy as they walked, Ashes set a car on fire at some point while Jonny and Tim cheered in the background, Brian and Marius were talking to the Toy Soldier about its time as a guard.

Vespa was keeping a tight track of every movement anyone, including Juno and Peter, was making. Peter was keeping an eye on retreat paths, and Juno was thinking how many of them he could take out if things went south, and who he should make his priority.  
Like that they reached a huge shape, that was apparently a ship. Mechanisms walked up to its supposed entrance and Jonny banged on the door. 

“Nastya!!” Jonny screamed as he kept banging. “Open up!”

After a couple of seconds in silence the door opened to reveal an angry looking woman, “You’re early, I’m still mad at you.”

Jonny opened his mouth to say something.

“Especially you, Jonny” she pointed at him, “If you weren’t distracting Brian, when he was fixing coordinates, Aurora wouldn’t crash into anything-”

“Hey, It wasn’t my fault-” Jonny started.

“Even if it was, which is most likely,” Tim started, “At least let us in-”

“Or maybe, Tim,” she turned to Tim, “It was because someone put so much guns at her, it meddled with the wiring.”

“Or because,” she turned to Ivy, “Someone had her constantly support a high temperature and pressure in a whole sector to keep there a huge population of octo kittens.”

“Or” she turned to Ashes, “Because someone had so much fucking gold in their quarters, fucked up her balancing system in gravity enforced environment.”

“And not to forget” she turned to Raphaella, “How much energy someone is stealing from her generators for experiments.” she practically hissed at the end. She looked very stressed and tired, like she hadn’t slept in all those 6 month they supposedly were there.

Everyone seemed to just have noticed that, as Jonny looked at her, clearly worried, and stepped a bit closer, carefully putting his hand on her shoulder, “Hey, Nast’, are you okay?” he asked softly.

Nastya looked at him for a second and then wrapped her hand around his waist, pressing her face at his shoulder, “I need to fix so much, and I need more hands, and I need to get some things, but we’re in a middle of nowhere and none of you can do shit,” she sighed and he hugged her back, “I found microchips i needed. The only fucking usable ones at this shithole, and they got fuckin stolen this morning.” she stopped for a second, “I’m so exhausted, Jonny.” 

Silence settled over them for a second. Then Jonny said to her in a calming voice “C’mon Nast’, you're a mess. Let’s get you back inside and figure things out.”

She sighed again, and Juno didn’t really think as he started talking, “Um, at our ship we have- Ughhgfhf”

He made a noise as Vespa elbowed him in the stomach, and Peter smoothly cut in, “A couple of people who are really good with tech, they might be able to help.”

“You think you can get us to the orbit?” Ashes asked, coming up to the breakdown lady and putting a hand on her back. 

“Yeah, she can do basics, she’s strong and I haven’t been bumming around while you were in prison or wherever. But it hurts her, I can literally feel it.”

“Let’s get away from here and we’ll steal you anything you might need to fix her up, okay?” Jonny said squeezing her a little.

“Fine,” she said, still displeased, but calmer now, “get in.”

And as they walked towards the entrance at the end of the procession, Juno hissed, “Why did you have to hit me?”

“So you’d shut up.” Vespa hissed back.

“I agree with Vespa on this one, Juno” Peter said, “It’s not very wise to tell them about our possessions” Peter said, guiding Juno at his waist away from argument with Vespa.

“I know that. I’m not stupid,” Vespa huffed at that, “She just seemed so sad.” He said helplessly.

They followed mechanisms onto the ship. The Aurora was way bigger than Carte Blanche and looked very different from the inside. Carte Blanche, being a remodeled tour ship, looked like a house on the inside, with it’s little rooms with thin walls and a spacious kitchen. Aurora, on the other hand, was modified so many times, you couldn’t really tell what she was supposed to be. It was almost vast inside, after a small cell and a compact ship, long wide hallways, big quarters and a huge bridge were a really nice change of pace.

The crew almost immediately scattered, as soon as they got on the ship, each of them going in a different hallway or taking a turn and disappearing from view. Ashes stayed to wait for them at one of the turns, they waited till the little group caught up and indicated to follow them. 

“You should wait on the bridge.” Ashes said, supposedly taking them there, “We’ll get going in about 20 minutes probably, and we’ll need you to contact your crew, so we could arrange a meeting.”

“Of course.” Peter said conversationally.

“You’ll be there with Brian and probably Tim” Ashes said as they stopped at a door, “You shouldn’t be with us for long enough to need rooms, but if you need anything ask the first person you see.” and with that they turned and disappeared down the corridor.

They looked at each other and went in, inside it was pitch dark , so they stopped at the entrance. Someone must’ve heard their shuffling, and a voice said:

“Aurora, turn on the lights please” and they saw Brian sitting in the captain chair, “Sorry for the lights neither Tim nor I really need it, so we usually turn it off.” he explained.

“Can you contact your captain once we’re out of here?” Tim asked from the chair at the controls where he was cleaning his guns.

He gestured for them at the other free chairs, which they took with Vespa staying the furthest from them, to see her surroundings better, and Peter sitting at the closest one to Tim.

“Um, not sur-” Juno started at the same time as Peter and Vespa said:

“Yes.”

“Of course.”

Juno looked at them a bit surprised. Peter turned to him and said in a low voice: “Each of us had a file, where it was stated how to contact the captain or anyone on the ship in case we found ourselves in a situation such as this.”

“Oh yeah, that file,” Juno recalled, “when I finally opened it, Rita said that, apparently, ‘no provided information would be of any use with my current understanding of ship communication system’ so I mostly didn’t read that part.” he admitted, kind of hoping Vespa didn’t listen to them.

But before they could find out, the door opened and in walked Jonny, looking rather annoyed.

“We’re taking off in 2 minutes.” he said, obviously cranky.

“And why did you come to personally inform us about it?” Tim asked, maybe in a tone he knew would irritate Jonny a bit more.

“Can’t captain check up on the br-”

“First mate” said two voices in unison.

“Oh, fuck off.” Jonny huffed and walked up to Brian in captain chair, positioning himself on Brian’s lap, letting his legs hang off the armrest. And as he did so Nastya’s voice announced: 

“Taking off in one minute” 

At that, Brian pushed some buttons, and Tim turned from his guns to check some monitors. Then a prerecorded robotic voice announced “Taking off in 10 seconds”” and as it said that, Brian pressed some more buttons and the ship shook a little as it started moving, getting out of the atmosphere.

“So wait,” Juno started, “which one of you is the captain?”

“Phh” that was Tim.

“She’s not here.” Brian said simply.

“And where is she?” Juno asked.

“Hopefully, dead.” Jonny said, visibly displeased with the subject.

“Hopefully.” the others agreed.

“Um okay, that seems like a touchy subject.”

“How’s Nastya?” Brain asked Jonny softly.

“I wanted to help her and she said to fuck off. So as usual.” Jonny said in a matching voice, “But she’s really worried about Aurora.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Brian said and tried to mess Jonny’s hair, only for him to shove the metal hand away.

“I’m technically older than you...” he said grumpily.

“Okay, we’re out of the orbit,” Tim informed the room, “You might wanna try to contact your ship.”

Peter turned to the panel with different light bulbs and buttons, and started doing something Juno didn’t really get. After a couple of seconds some other lights went on and then something made a sound, and Peter said, “We should be on the line, we may start talking when you allow it at captain chair” he addressed Brian.

“Which one of you will be talking?” Brian asked.

“Me” Vespa said, not aggressively, per se, but far from friendly.

“Okay” he pressed a button, with Jonny still in his lap, “Get the comms at your chair.”

She picked up the head piece and put it on. They couldn’t hear the other part of the conversation, but they could guess what they were talking about based on Vespa’s answers. They went in a line of “Yes. Ransom and Steel too. Self proclaimed pirates. Yes. Yes. Okay.” She then turned to Brian, “She wants to talk to someone from the crew about transporting us on board.”

“Tim, could you take it?” Brian asked, pressing some other button. Tim hummed in agreement, put away his guns and put on a head piece.

“Gunpowder Tim, master at arms. pause Unfortunately unavailable, due to a very gruesome death. pause Yes, that could be arranged. pause…”

When Tim finished talking, Jonny told everyone that Nastya turned off some systems n Aurora and the whole crew needs to gather at the common room, so she could save energy from the living quarters.Vespa definitely didn’t look like she was going to walk away, when Buddy was right there, so Juno and Peter told them they’d stay for a bit and then join the rest of them. 

Jonny and Brian went ahead and Tim stayed to show them the way.After Vespa was done talking with Buddy, Peter and Juno both had a short conversation with the captain, where they reassured her about their wellbeing.

After Juno had his talk, in which Buddy informed him how glad she is that he is okay and that they all did a great job with getting themselves out of the situation, they will talk over the mistakes that led to the situation in the first place. He sighed and passed the head piece on to Peter. Not knowing what to do with himself on the bridge, Juno decided to be the first one to head out to the common room. 

He left the bridge, and was pretty sure in all the turns he made, until he didn’t finish facing a wall of a deadend turn. Third one in a row. And on top of that Juno could swear that he heard a bang in the wall to his left, and the banging was getting closer. And just as he decided to get out of the hunted corridor, a piece of wall opened, and a woman with a bunch of wires in her hands stepped out.

“What are you doing here.” she asked, irritated.

“Can’t a lady walk around?” he asked, quickly getting annoyed back.

“Considering that in order to get your ship on our deckI need to urgently fix some wiring,” she looked him dead in the eye. “Lady can help me hold some things.”

She was smaller than juno, and looked way younger, but her gaze held a lot of weight to it.

“He sure can.” Juno said, taking the bunch of wires she shoved into his arms.

“Great,” just a little bit skeptical and “follow me”, as she closed the panel on the wall she got out of and moved down the corridor to open the other wall. She held it up, so Juno could step in, and led the way farther into the ship.

Juno couldn’t help too much with technical things, but he held some stuff here and there to make it easier for hur to shuffle around. While working, Nastya would sometimes swear quietly in the language Juno didn’t quite recognize and answer his questions as shortly but completely as possible.

He found out that Aurora was a very old modified to unrecognizable state sentient ship, and even though he didn’t understand most of the terms she used, while explaining how to fix things, he got that she needed some equipment and more people who know how to do things.

After some time of work they heard Brian’s voice on the communication system. “It’s about an hour before we meet with that other ship, also, Nastya, Jonny wants you to come over to the common room, him and Ivy want to play that game that draws him crazy.”

Nastya gave Juno the thing she was holding and leaned towards the wall to press a button, “Only if he plays without guns on him.” She said in the same dispassionate voice Juno was already used to.

“He said okay.” Brian answered. 

“We’ll be there in 5 minutes.” Then she took the thing from Juno and continued sealing a piece of wall back on the wall.

After that Juno helped her to put everything into a storage at the end of the corridor and followed her to the common room. There, Tim slept on the couch with his head on Marius’s lap and Raphaella half-laying on top of him to participate in a conversation with Marius and Brian. In the kitchen area, Toy Soldier was making tea under Ashes’ supervision, Jonny and Ivy were preparing cards and a score sheet on the table. Peter and Vespa were standing in the kitchen area a bit aside from everyone else, though it seemed that Peter was talking to Ashes.

When Juno and Nastya approached, Nastya just took a spot at the empty side of the table, and Juno went to join Vespa and Peter. 

“Nice of you to join us.” Vespa grumbles at Juno.

Before he could answer in a matching manner, Peter started talking.

“Can I join in?” Peter asked, directing his question at the people at the table.

“Sure, do you know how to play?” Ivy asks him.

“I’m a quick learner.” Peter replies confidently.

Ivy pointed at the empty side of the table. 

“Is there something on stake?” He asked, taking the place.

“Not usually,” Nastya said to him and turned to Jonny, “Redraw the sheet for 4 players.”

Ivy started explaining the rules, and showing Peter a marked piece of paper.

“What are they playing?” Juno asked Ashes.

“Nastya taught us how to play that game, she used new back home.” they said, “Jonny hates it. He likes to think he’s good at cards, but he never won against Nastya and Ivy.”

“Is that why he can’t have guns on him while playing?”

“He Is A Very Sore Loser.” Toy Soldier supplied.

“Shut up!” Jonny screamed back, “It’s really unfair, Ivy has a superbrain and Nastya is weirdly good at that damn game. At least I won’t lose to the newbie.”

Ashes hummed at that, amused.

“You don’t wanna play with them?” Juno looked at them.

“Can’t really cheat at it. And that’s the best part of any game.” they explained.

Then Ashes got distracted by Toy Soldier, who was trying to put in the tea it was making something that shouldn’t go anywhere near food. So they all listened to the conversation at the table.

“We only have about an hour, so lets play to 7 points.” Ivy said.

Jonny wrote 7 in the middle of the sheet and started dealing cards, giving everyone 10 cards, two at a time and leaving 2 for himself. Everyone except Jonny picked up their cards and stared at them for a second. Pass. One. Pass. Then Jonny flips his cards over, and Nastya takes them. Seven cubes. She put two cards face down. Ivy looks at her cards. Whist. Peter looks at her. Pass. Whose hand? Peter’s. Laying down. Peter and Ivy put all of their cards down, faces up. Then look at them for a couple of seconds. Fair game. Peter you see how? Yes. Great, you deal. Jonny, write down the points. Jonny reaches out for the paper and writes down some numbers at different places. While Peter tosses up cards and starts dealing, giving everyone else 10 and leaving 2 for himself. 

The game went on like that, Juno got a little grasp of the rules, not really understanding them, but seeing patterns. Jonny was probably losing, as he was steadily getting more annoyed. And Nastya and Ivy were having a great time, mockingly singing “Your train has arrived” and making choo-choo sounds. Peter was intently watching the scene, remembering things to ask when the round was over.

In the end Jonny was annoyingly throwing cards around while Nastya was making fun of him, and Ivy explained to Peter how to count the results on the score sheet.

Jonny’s screaming woke up Tim, and he asked from the couch “Why is Jonny bitching again?”

“I’m not bitching!”

“He lost to Nastya and Ivy.” Ashes said over his screaming. Tim started laughing.

“Shut up! Where are my guns?! I need to shoot something!”

“Good luck.” Ashes sighed, definitely amused.

As he stormed out Aurora made a sound, “Oh she’s ready to take in the Carte Blanche.” Nastya translated. She got up from the table, walked to the screen at the wall and tapped it a couple of times. “We’ll place them on the 4th deck.” Nastya turned to everyone else, “You wanna go meet our guests?”

The Toy Soldier nodded enthusiastically, Marius, Brian and Raphaella got up as well, everyone else made a dismissing sound, so Nastya led the way.

On the deck, Carte Blanche has landed, and doors opened to reveal Buddy and Jet. Buddy stepped out, and went to greet Nastya, who was standing at the front of their little crowd to introduce herself.

“Buddy Aurinko, captain of the Carte Blanche.” she offered her hand.

Nastya shook it a bit hesitantly, looked at mechanisms behind her and offered an unsure “Nastya Rasputina, engineer..?” 

Marius stepped up to her, “Baron Maris Von Raum, ship’s doctor” he offered her a hand, and as she shook it, Raphaella and the Toy Soldier followed suit.

“Thank you for your assistance. We appreciate it.” Buddy started very diplomatically. 

“No big deal. Is there a decade where we don’t let some prisoners out.” Marius said, looking curiously at the smaller ship.

“Anyway, thank you. Now I hope you won’t think us rude, but we are on a schedule.” She nodded at Carte Blanche.

“Sure thing.” Raphaella said, as she and Marius stepped to the side.

While Juno, Peter and Vespa walked by, mechanisms looked at Juno and then talked lowly with each other. Juno looked at them before stepping into the ship. He felt sad about their dying ship and he really thought that even without giving them the chip Rita needed, they could still help. He saw how much Nastya cared about the ship, how she would murmur something while working, or looked longingly at the dead areas or even how she gently touched the walls after fixing the wiring.

And Aurora answered back, with a strange humm, that only Nastya could understand, and how she just let Nastya do whatever she needed. And Juno was sure even in more ways, he just couldn’t see.  
Juno didn’t doubt that she was alive and he felt so bad about just leaving them there, when they could help. 

When they walked in, Vespa still wasn’t fully relaxed, but she let loose enough to hug Buddy and just stayed like that for a couple of minutes. ANd as Juno thought if it was vise to comment on it, he was attacked by Rita with a crushing hug and a “Mistaah Steel” shriek.

When all the checking up and talking was done, which was very quick, as Jet just nodded at them, which almost moved Juno to the point of crying, and Rita was changing topics quickly, but got quiet when Buddy started speaking.

“So, are we all set to leave?” Buddy asked everyone, but mostly Rita and Jet.

“Yes captain!!” 

“Um, actually, captain,” Juno started, unsure.

“Yes dear?” Buddy encouraged. 

“Their ship is dying, and they don’t have enough people or tools or something...” He looked around and then back at Buddy, “I thought that maybe, we could… help them?” 

“Juno, I think they are old enough to fix...”

“No you just haven’t seen the state of the ship. It’s dying” he sighed, “I just really think that with Jet and Rita’s help and maybe some materials we could really help her.” Peter put his hand on his shoulder supportively.

“I can’t answer for Jet or Rita, as it seems they’ll be doing the most work.” Buddy said, looking at them.

“Yes, but captain. We can’t agree without your permission.” Jet said.

“I’m not forcing you if you don’t want to, but I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.” Buddy said.

“It’s a horrible idea to stay with these lunatics a second longer than necessary.” Vespa said, annoyed.

“They did technically help you three to safely get here.” Buddy looked at Vespa, who huffed, and then at Jet and Rita, “So what do you think dears?”

Jet looked at Juno, who had been staring at him this whole time, and turned to look at Rita who was nodding enthusiastically.

“Okay”

“Great, then let’s go inform our hosts about our decision.” Buddy said.

On Aurora, Buddy offered mechanisms their help, and Nastya quickly took hold of the conversation with Jet and Rita, asking what they have that she might use and what they can work with.  
After discussion, they all went on Carte Blanche and came back with hands full of different things, and Nastyal led the way out of the deck and down the corridors. A second after they were gone, Rita came back and took Juno and the Toy Soldier with them.

While they were doing that, Marius and Raphaella took the rest of the Carte Blanche crew to the common roo to meet the rest of the team.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! leave a comment i really like reading them!!  
> if you see any mistaces that personally bother you tell me  
> aslo i think there could be a continuation but i can't come up with anything


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